The original 1950's classic starred Clifton Webb as Frank Gilbreth, a man with a plan and patriarch of a large family that uproots itself to follow opportunity. Based on a real life family, the story provided a framework to explore how crowded living conditions can result in a lot of warm hearted comedy, with a number of thematically similar movies made on the same premise. Well, in 2003, an update was made starring lovable goofus Steve Martin in the role of the dad who moves his family of twelve across country in order to become a head coach in a lucrative position at his old college; amounting to his dream job that comes around once in a lifetime. This being an updated version, his wife, played by Bonnie Hunt, also gets the chance to follow her dream after writing a best selling novel, requiring her to hit the road to promote it. This forces hubby to have to run not only his football team but also the large family of children; most of whom show a decided knack for getting into trouble. As the movie wears on, the family value themes of sacrifice, devotion to loved ones, and all the usual warm fuzzy stuff pops up to make things work out in the end. The movie grossed $140 million at the box office, sold scores of DVDs, and is routinely on cable television so with that much money at stake, a sequel was all but inevitable, right?

Well, of course a sequel was made, this time following the family on their summer vacation up in a wilderness community where they rent a large cabin. Bonnie Hunt returns as his wife, pop singer Hilary Duff comes back as the graduating daughter, Smallville's Tom Welling is the hunky oldest son and the rest of the children (most of whom have family ties in show business) all seemed to be present and accounted for to go through the motions yet again. The director this time was Adam Shankman, notable as being a long time choreographer and director of light comedies. While there must've been plenty of material left to mine from the first movie given the limited number of laughs, the dynamic this time was to force the Baker family into a virtual competition with the well off Murtaugh clan. If you've watched any reasonable amount of movies over the years, you'll feel right at home with how the plot was devised.

First, the family is getting older and with older son Charlie (Tom Welling) off to college and about to grow beyond the family boundaries, oldest daughter Nora (Piper Perabo) married off and about to move far away with her husband and soon to be born child, next older daughter Lorraine (Hilary Duff) about to intern in far off New York City, the writing is on the wall that this will likely be the very last vacation they all spend together. Tom (Martin) lives by a motto that his family comes first and they have always been a big, happy, though poor family.

The second ingredient to such a movie is the rival clan being of similar size and somehow better off. Led by patriarch Eugene Levy as Jimmy Murtaugh with fourth wife Sarina (played by pop icon hotty Carmen Electra) in tow, his 8 children are all experts and over achievers thanks to his pushy demeanor. One is off to Harvard, another studying particle physics; another kid is a skateboarding hero, and so on down the line. Jimmy and Tom went to school together and took drastically different routes in life, each a success depending on how you define the term. Carmen succeeds as eye candy largely in relation to Levy seeming so creepy though you wonder exactly how he scored a babe like her other than the money (she isn't written as a shallow, money hungry witch, just the opposite in fact, making her compatibility with Levy's character a complete mystery).

The culture clash comes in when the two families meet at the respective lakeside cabins. The Murtaugh's own their ultra deluxe, loaded cabin outright thanks to Jimmy's financial acumen and the Baker's rent the same rundown hovel they've been in for years. The two fathers are so competitive to outdo one another that the results should have been hilarious given the comedic talents of Levy and Martin yet they routinely fell flat. It wasn't the potty humor or the way the low road was taken so frequently that really weakened the show so much as a combination of factors. Martin's lovable dad played out the humor in the first volume of the series so everything he does this time is just a rehash that feels like a rehash almost every time. Levy, for his wonderful past in SCTV plays the heavy so woodenly that I wondered whether the writers took a break when his character was written or if he was trying to pay Martin back for some off camera slight.

Welling and Duff, almost certainly present to draw their fans to the box office (and it worked fairly well; last time I checked, the movie grossed $80 million, with all the additional revenue streams yet to come in), could have phoned in their roles with the same said about Hunt and most of the generic kids. The only consistent bright spot was the kid playing Sarah (the daughter coming of age) and even she wasn't given much to do. Martin was boxed in by the limits of the character, with plot holes large enough to drive a tank through all too often. In general, the movie simply fell flat as a comedy and serves best as an attempt to fill space on a premium cable channel as the meter keeps running. It wasn't as bad as I recall the professional critics saying in the newspaper or on television but an unfunny comedy without any true substance to fall back on sure isn't a highlight in my book either.

In all, if you're looking for a riotous laugh-fest or as one shill television station hack put it "The Perfect Family Comedy", you'll need to keep right on looking because you aren't going to find it here. If you just want a dumbed down piece of fluff with more talent on screen going unutilized than just about any movie made last year, by all means pick up a copy cheap. I'm still of the opinion that this was definitely a Skip It and I have been a long time fan of Levy and Martin in other situations (though not so much in recent years of course). I've seen worse movies than this one but not by a whole lot if you catch my drift.

Picture: Cheaper By The Dozen 2 was presented in the original 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen color as originally shot by director Adam Shankman. My copy of the movie was a press screener that had two separate discs, one with the full frame version and the other with the proper aspect ratio. The fleshtones were accurate and the picture as a whole looked exactly as you'd expect a newly released, big budget movie from a major company to look. The sight gags were all caught well enough but there wasn't anything specific out of place on my copy worth noting. It looked good, far better than the material deserved, and if there were any flaws, I didn't notice them.

Sound: The audio was presented in the original 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround English track, a 2.0 Dolby Digital French track or a 2.0 Dolby Digital Spanish track with option subtitles in English or Spanish. The audio was another aspect of the movie that seemed very well handled with decent amounts of separation between the channels, crisp vocals and music, and some care put into the mix. Any flaws with the audio tracks were minimal in nature, though like the visual aspects of the movie, my copy might not be the final product.

Extras: Aside from some trailers, there were three noteworthy extras. The first extra I thought would be interesting was the audio commentary by director Adam Shankman. This was the second commentary of his that I've listened to and he actually came up with a few tidbits worth listening to this time. There was some dead space that appeared to be between thoughts but he filled it up with anecdotes and discussion about problems encountered on the set so if you're totally bored; give it a listen. There was a second extra called Camp Chaos that lasted a bit over ten minutes with most of the cast (and director) making comments about the fun they had making the movie. The last extra was a 5 minute feature called A Comedic Trio where the focus was on Martin, Levy and Hunt as some short quips about their backgrounds were discussed. While it wasn't a comprehensive package of extras, considering the type of movie, you should be thankful for that fact.

Final Thoughts: Cheaper By The Dozen 2 was lighthearted fare designed to waste an hour and a half while making the movie studio a lot of money off of people that wanted to see the same old people get into very similar (thematically at least) situations as the 2003 remake. I thought that was a pleasant, if somewhat vapid, exercise in making a movie according to the principles of lowest common denominator market research but it had enough jokes worth a smile that it was preferential to some of the trash people shell out too much to see. This volume in the series was worse in the way so many aspects were handled and the comedy aspects, what little were present, seemed to be forced far too often to truly enjoy. I'm enough of a fan that I'll still check out Martin's and Levy's movies when they hit cable but the thought of shelling out a full priced theater price to see this makes me wonder what people were thinking. Check out the original for some real laughs circa 1950.